Variations in engravers’ styles and ability are always possible but a more or less pronounced nose seems to be quite a common feature in
Trebonianus Gallus‘
portraits.
This pronounced nose is also present on the various sculpted
portraits identified as those of
Trebonianus Gallus (
cf. in particular the bronze
portrait in Florence museum), so monetary
portraits seem to be close to the real
face of this emperor and not a fantasy of engravers.
This feature is also a very common one in the monetary
portraits designed by the various western mints, both imperal and colonial (
Rome, 2d western
mint,
Viminacium,
Dacia), all places where
Trebonianus Gallus stayed in 251. It points again to a true and realistic representation of this emperor.
The difference with eastern mints (where
Trebonianus Gallus never stayed) which present less commonly on their monetary
portraits this feature and above all in a less marked way, could be explain at first by the ignorance of the real
portrait of
Trebonianus Gallus and then by delays in transmission of the ‘imago’. However, at least, all their coinage
types (
antoniniani, colonial coinage) also show regularly such a more or less pronounced nose. So not a sufficient criteria to distinguish between western and eastern mints.